Self-confidence thru BG

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue between Arjuna (the spiritual aspirant)

and Krishna (the Lord). It should be read as a dialogue between YOU and

GOD. In the first chapter, you are confused or deluded, but in the last

chapter enlightened. Such is the journey of our lives. (According to SSB)

The Chariot is a representation of the body or five sheaths. Arjuna is the

ego of the jIvi (sentient being), while Krishna is its AtmA or ishvara

residing in the Heart.

 

It is we first confused and gradually brought to Realization by God

through however many births.

 

To me, this is one of the most profound statements:

 

"The divine nature is deemed for Liberation, the demoniacal for

bondage; grieve not, O Arjuna, you are born for a divine state."

(BG 16:5)

 

If you really take this as a conversation between GOD and you, then

GOD is telling you that you are born in a divine nature and you are

definitely deemed for Liberation. Arjuna wanted to abscond the War.

Sathya Sai Baba has said that the War is that which takes place

within us between the good and evil forces of the mind. What happens if

the Good absconds the War within?

 

This verse above, I take to be the one where the Lord gives you Self-

confidence, esp. meaning Atma-visvAsam or confidence in the Self, meaning

that you are confident of yourself as a spiritual being or of Divine

nature or as the Self.

 

In other verses, the Lord tells things regarding a third person ("this

kind of devotee is dear to Me.") or instructs things to do ("Dedicate all

acts to Me") but is only this one verse where the Lord tells you that you

ARE the Divine Person (as an unquestionable fact) and that Liberation is

your birthright.

 

So, you have to DISBELIEVE all your short-of-divine acts as belonging to

Delusion and tell yourself that these short-of-divine qualities cannot

belong to a Divine person and you instantaneously throw away all that

complacency and reach for the stars! The complacency or underconfidence

comes from attachment to previous acts.

 

Now.. if you are a Divine natured person, what is your qualities?

 

The Supreme Lord said: "Fearlessness, purity of heart, perseverance in the

yoga of knowledge, charity, sense restraint, sacrifice, study of the

scriptures, austerity, honesty; nonviolence, truthfulness, absence of

anger, renunciation, equanimity, abstaining from malicious talk,

compassion for all creatures, freedom from greed, gentleness, modesty,

absence of fickleness; splendor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness,

absence of malice, and absence of pride; these are the qualities of those

endowed with divine virtues, O Arjuna." (BG 16.01-03)

 

Perhaps once you reach this part of the posting, you think, "I had the

confidence you are trying to instill until I read the above qualities."

 

At the beginning of the BG, Arjuna had fickleness. In his life as seen in

the Mahabharata, Arjuna had showed sensual attachment (women), anger

(against Duryodhana and Kauravas), non-equanimity (suffering from sorrows)

and others. Yet, Krishna crowns him as a Divine natured person. Remember,

Krishna is not telling this to another perfect person like Himself, but to

Arjuna.

 

The exact same thing applies to us. The above is our true nature and

birthright. We are claiming it or yet to claim it. This is the confidence

that GOD wants us to have. It does not matter where you are in any kind of

spiritual journey.

 

GOD tells us that "The divine nature is deemed for Liberation, YOU

ARE BORN FOR A DIVINE STATE."

 

He doesn't say, "You CAN go for a divine state," but he says, "You

ARE born in a divine state."

 

A grammatical detail that shows instillation of perfect Self-confidence

that we MUST have.

 

Let us put this another way: If we don't have all the divine natured

qualities and we want to achieve them, then losing self-confidence, is

losing both halves of the battle.

 

Have self-confidence and with it courage and fearlessness will come. When

that comes, all the other divine qualities will creep in taking back their

rightful home.

 

 

--

Warmest regards,

Ruben

rubenn

_____________

[Guest guest]

Thank You Sri Ruben, that was a nice mail.

 

Anand

 

 

On Mon, 31 Jan 2000 00:29:10 Ruben wrote:

 

 

 

A FREE web-based e-mail service brought to you by the PC World Technology

Network.

Get your FREE account today at http://www.myworldmail.com

[Guest guest]

Greetings Ruben:

 

You are quite right in your statement, "Gita should be read as a dialogue

between You and God." I enjoy reading your article and I agree with the

essence of your message wholeheartedly. Realization is nothing but the

understanding of our Divine Nature and conduct our actions accordingly. The

article below has a similar message attributed to the saint Gyaanayshwar of

Maharastra, India.

 

regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

Realized Souls See God Everywhere (An Article from the Religious Section of

The Hindu taken with permission: "Copyrights 2000 The Hindu & Tribeca

Internet Initiatives Inc.")

 

``As the chariot does not worry or concern itself as to whether it travels

in the right direction, let us leave the decision-making to God whether what

we do is of great or little importance. The only way to overcome egoism is to

constantly practise and make a habit of thinking that God alone is the Doer.

So, when the time comes to leave, our mind would already have been centred on

God and realised Him.''

 

``We should not be deceived by the parts we play and the qualities associated

with them in our present life, no more than an actor who is not fooled into

the unreality of the play. Lust, anger and greed are the soul's highway

robbers. Where such qualities prosper, hell indeed is nearer.'' These are

some of the lovely imageries of a great saint of Maharashtra who has left a

rich legacy in the form of a brilliant commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. Its

unsurpassable and innumerable illustrations and 20,000 couplets show that the

young spiritual leader, Gyaanayshwar, was but a manifestation of the Supreme

Being. At the Pandaripur temple, he sang ``One who stands before Lord

Panduranga even for a moment, with exclusive devotion, shall have all four

types of salvation (entering God's abode, remaining near God, attaining His

likeness and total merger in Him). Walk in the path of righteousness and

receive instructions from scriptures.'' Gyaanayshwar compares a man with an

impure mind even if he performs good actions, to a corpse adorned with

ornaments.

 

The young saint, whose powers were challenged by some priests, humbled them

by quoting from the Gita that a realized person sees the Lord present in the

heart of a scholar, a cow, an elephant, a dog and the so- called untouchable.

Placing his palm over the head of a buffalo, he prayed that the animal should

chant Vedic Mantras which it did. But Gyaanayshwar was quite aware that the

realisation of God and not the attainment of special powers (to perform

miracles) is the purpose of all spiritual disciplines.

 

According to him, though sects develop peculiar rites and customs, as a whole

they belong to the same uniform ocean of knowledge where man seeks his

redemption from a seemingly perpetual gyration of births and deaths, all

triggered by his unquenchable thirst for the three evils. Just as the sky is

mirrored in an ocean and is not forbidden from being reflected in a pond,

God's grace appears in all. ``Even the worst sinner can reform by thinking of

God.'' Devotees believe that the saint lives forever in the cave into which

he entered, reciting the ninth chapter of the Gita (in Alandi) with his

spiritual body to bless people.